Low budget diet

Meal prep helps me save both time and money. But, yes, it is difficult at times to eat healthy on a budget.

I think this is a great question. I'm going to contradict @joeyzuraski somewhat, although there is some truth to what he said. Carbs are cheaper than protein or salad! Fortunately, MFP is free, so you have that going for you.

It is relatively inexpensive to cook everything yourself rather than eat at restaurants, even inexpensive fast food ones. You do need access to a reasonable kitchen with range, pots and pans, microwave, fridge and freezer.

You can reduce meat cost by buying meat on sale, repackaging (multi layers of plastic wrap work well and are cheaper than zip-lock bags), and putting stuff in the freezer. You can freeze meat cooked or raw. Vegetables are similar, and you can make a big vegetable dish (stir fry or casserole) and freeze extra portions. Certain things are downright cheap, including rice and pasta. Both are fine on a diet-- you just need to keep track of portions. Cooked rice freezes well, so you can keep extra portions for when you need them. Finally, you can put it all together by making your own "lean cuisine," putting whole cooked meals in the freezer to be microwaved later.

For breakfast, oatmeal made with milk is just about the cheapest thing on the planet. Berries are often on sale in the summer. Extras can be frozen and used in hot oatmeal made in the microwave. Milk is a cheap high-protein food. Finally, you can make a big batch of oatmeal with berries and milk and put it in the fridge, scooping out a bit every day for breakfast.

The one splurge could be salad. If you live alone it's challenging to eat a $5 box of baby lettuce before it goes bad. Again, salad vegetables do go on sale and you just have to snap them up and get to eating them!

Best of luck!

Our grocery bill plummets when we are eating "healthy" and limiting our calories.

One expense I would recommend first off is getting a food scale. It is very important for measuring servings accurately and by measuring accurately you are likely to eat less (which costs less). A ten-buck kitchen scale from Walmart or similar big box store is all you need.

Things that are relatively expensive, like crackers and cookies are off our list and things like cheese last longer because we are eating less. There are expensive vegetables and cheap vegetables. Cabbage, for example, is very cheap per pound. Yes, a head of cabbage can cost a bit because it weighs so much but it's many servings and can be used in many ways. Carrots are relatively cheap. So are sweet potatoes. Pull up your calculator on your phone when you hit the grocery store and figure out the cheapest way to buy things. Sometimes the large size is more expensive per ounce, sometimes less.

In addition to this, there are a gazillion cheap recipes on the web. The magic search word is FRUGAL. Search
"frugal sheet pan dinners" and, for example, PrudentPennnyPinchers list of 100 cheap and easy meals pops up.

The frugal cooks out there can lead you to a bunch of inexpensive foods like beans, which are very useful as cheap protein. A 1-pound bag of dried beans converts into about 10 servings and only costs a couple bucks. Find a nearby Aldi's -- it really does have bargains. Garlic may look expensive but if you can buy lose garlic by the pound, it really costs very little because a head of it doesn't cost much. Garlic and onions are great for adding flavor without spending much. The local hippy healthfood or ethnic markets often have spices you can buy by the ounce very cheaply. Mustards and vinegars are cheap and flavorful.

Watch for sales on things like chicken and meat and make friends with your freezer -- even if all you have is a top-of-the-fridge cubby-hole of a freezer. Divide things into serving size before you freeze and it's totally handy. Watch out for pre-freezed bags of things like chicken because they may have lots of water added to up the weight. They can end up being as expensive as fresh. Cheap cuts, like pork butts on sale, can be cooked as one and then shredded into individual servings and frozen.

Eating "smart" need not cost more but it requires a learning curve and making careful choices.

Planning what you're going to have around sales help. Getting fruits and veg that are in season are cheaper than off season things as well. Usually buying fresh and not prepackaged is cost affective along with the store brands that someone said previously. Shop around at different stores too!!!! Some items will be cheaper at one store than the other.

nagalsachin76 wrote: »

Is anyone available to discuss

With the exception of those that are very, very poor (as in the cheapest calorie-dense starch items like bread/macaroni/etc are all they can afford and they already make every meal themselves largely from scratch), eating healthier and lower calorie can easily be much cheaper than before. Impulse purchased snack-type items are crossed off, restaurant/takeout/fast food is crossed off. For many people, it's more about what you NO LONGER BUY, or BUY LESS of, versus adding stuff. I started spending a lot less (as I didn't have the calories available for restaurant food, takeout, another drink, that wedge of cheese,...)

The latter category (adding stuff) mostly comes up for those desiring something low-calorie-density to fill space -make a meal larger in volume and more filling or because they need something to boredom-snack on. Whatever vegetable(s) grow in your region spanning most of the year are typically pretty cheap and can fill this criteria. (In the northern US, for instance, this would be things like carrots, celery, onions, cabbage).

A large batch of soup/stew/chili can be made pretty cheaply, with local inexpensive produce (like those listed above)(also bags of dried beans, split peas) and whichever meat is decently priced at the time (and you may want to shop around and see who has the better pricing and in what sizes..larger packages of meat are often much, much cheaper per pound (and it's not like you won't use it eventually..just re-package and freeze in smaller quantities). As mentioned above, you might find your meat bill goes down when using a food scale (full cuts of meat, such as chicken breasts and sometimes pork chops, are often multiple serving sizes -→ before getting a food scale, people will typically serve up an entire multi-portion piece, whereas it may be chopped into a stirfry/soup or cut into a few fillets after obtaining a food scale and realizing the full calorie content as is.

Larger sizes of the simpler frozen vegetables are usually also very cheap (the blends and smaller packages are a bit pricier). Salad greens aren't too pricy if you don't buy them in the convenience-packaged forms (as in pre-chopped and washed, sometimes pre-blended with other things). A few dollars will (here, anyway) generally buy a few full heads of romaine, and much cheaper for iceberg. (A 'salad spinner' can be a useful 1-time investment if you really like salad - a colander within a bowl and a lid that force-spins the colander to force more water out after washing, and a good size for washing chopped salad greens and other produce).

Oats are cheap and easy to make (Quick oats only need you to add some hot water and a bit of salt; optionally some sugar/splenda/milk). I commonly have oatmeal for breakfast with yogurt. and/or eggs (which are also inexpensive).

..speaking of canned goods. Generic canned vegetables (depending on store chain) and diced tomatoes are usually very cheap. (1 item I prefer not getting at Wegmans... $1 or $0.90 for most things versus $0.40ish at PriceRite/Aldi). In a pinch, can microwave the diced tomatoes, and add a protein source (cheese, or chicken, or..), some salt, pepper for soup. I'll often open a can of vegetables in the late evening if I have a strong urge to snack (40 cents isn't too bad an expense to squash that).